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Larry Coker's biggest challenge will be simply adjusting to his first head coaching job. When one has been an assistant -- even an offensive coordinator -- and is suddenly thrown into the head job, people see and treat him differently.
Coker will have to decide how he's going to be involved in the offense, defense and kicking game. Before, he was only worried about the offensive personnel in the gameplan. Now he has to get involved in everything. It's a very difficult transaction, only made better in Coker's case by the fact that he was already at Miami. Not being a complete outsider will help significantly.
Miami is coming off of an 11-1 season, they have a lot of talent coming back, and a lot of people are still arguing about whether or not the 'Canes should have played for the national title last year. Expectations are sky-high for Coker and this team -- but it is not the coach or the team who won't live up to the expectations -- it is the schedule that will stand in the way.
The Hurricanes have to go to Penn State -- granted, it isn't like going to Happy Valley in the old days, but Penn State is still a pretty good football team. Then they have Washington at home, and are back on the road to Pitt, Florida State and Virginia Tech, all tough road trips. Mix in there a Boston College visit, and the Miami Hurricanes have the toughest schedule of any team ranked in the Top Five.
Tough schedule or no tough schedule, the focus is will be on Coker, because he is the most significant new denominator from last year. If they fail, a lot of people will blame Coker, even though they ought to blame the schedule.
You haven't met a nicer person than Larry Coker. He is truly deserving of this job. Either Pete Carroll at USC, Dennis Franchione at Alabama, Mark Richt at Georgia, Jim Tressel at Ohio State or Coker at Miami will have the kind of year Terry Bowden had in his first year at Auburn.
It is less likely for Coker because he has the toughest schedule, but he also has arguably the best QB in the country. The heat is turning on.
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